Stuffed Turkey Breast

Turkey on Thanksgiving Day is a lot of work, to say the least. Is it worth it? Sure it is, but sometimes you might want to cut some corners and take it a little easier on what can be a stressful cooking day, too. We picked out this Rolled Stuffed Turkey Breast from Williams Sonoma because it looked like a great solution for those in need of a little ease with their turkey.

Except we had to change ours to Stuffed Turkey Breast. Not a lot of rolling happened, but I’ll explain why later.

Since this is a shortcut, technically, to your Thanksgiving bird, there’s also a shortcut in the ingredients – the stuffing is the boxed/bagged kind. But you’re going to kick it up with some fresh, sauteed onion, fennel, celery and plenty of fresh herbs. We used sage, rosemary and thyme, a kind of holy trinity of Thanksgiving at Full Fork Ahead.

Just give the onion, fennel and celery a little while to soften. Ours did need several minutes longer to do so, and we’ve noted that below. Just be the judge of when your batch is done. Add in those fresh herbs and it’s beginning to smell a lot like Thanksgiving dinner!

After this part, you’ll add in the cooked veggies with the stuffing in a large bowl, saturating it all with a few cups of warmed chicken stock, which is all set aside then to reconstitute and await the turkey. I’m, urr, not sure where my pics of that went!

Okay, so this fella, the turkey breast. I had the butcher at the store butterfly it for me, telling him we’d need to roll the dang thing up. It looked nicely butterflied at the time. And still in one whole piece. When I unrolled it for this, though, it had actually been cut in almost three separate pieces. Urrr….

At this point we had to try to pound it to a half-inch thickness. Which is so not easy, especially on the thicker upper portion. I had no meat mallet, so I used an unopened vegetable can like I always do, with the bird between two sheets of parchment paper. I dented the can. I did not get the meat pounded as thin as needed.

I was starting to feel a little angsty.

Because the meat was in almost three pieces, connected only thinly at the top, we put the stuffing smack in the middle. I kind of folded the meat up around the stuffing while sis blogging partner tied it off with some cooking twine.

Amazingly enough…this worked! The presentation isn’t as purty as the original from WS, but we were pleased considering the butcher butchered the butterflying.

Grab a platter and prepare that bird for annihilation! In other words, pretty it up for the table and prepare to feast. This smelled wonderful baking in the oven, and soon enough our taste buds were definitely rewarded.

Since we only made one turkey breast (the recipe calls for two), we baked the load of stuffing that was leftover in its own casserole dish to serve alongside. We wholeheartedly suggest this as there’s not a ton of room to put stuffing inside the breast after it’s been rolled or folded up.

We found this to be a wonderful solution to a quicker, somewhat easier turkey day celebration. No messing with a huge turkey if you don’t need to, or even a smaller whole one. This is obviously perfect for smaller parties, families of two or three or four. Hubby like it so much that he’s all for having it at our own dinner. Hope you enjoy!

Preheat an oven to 425°F.In a large saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the onion, celery and fennel and sauté, stirring occasionally, until soft and translucent, about 10-15 minutes. Add the mixed fresh herbs, parsley, salt and pepper and stir to combine. Transfer to a large bowl. Add the focaccia stuffing and 3 cups of the stock and stir to combine; add more stock if needed to form a moist stuffing. Set aside.

Place 1 butterflied turkey breast on a work surface, with a long side nearest you, and season with salt and pepper. Mound 3 cups of the stuffing in the center, leaving a 1-inch border on each long side. Fold the long side nearest you over the stuffing to enclose, gently pressing on the filling, then roll to form a cylinder; do not roll it too tightly or the filling will slip out of the ends. Using kitchen twine, tie the rolled turkey breast crosswise at 1-inch intervals. Rub the outside of the turkey breast with 1 Tbs. of the olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Repeat with the other turkey breast half. (You will have some stuffing left over.)

Place the remaining stuffing in a casserole dish. Set the turkey breast halves, skin side up, on top. Roast for 25 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 350°F. Continue roasting until the skin is crisp and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the breasts registers 165°F, about 40 minutes more. At this point, also place the extra stuffing in the oven to bake for the remaining 40 minutes. Transfer the turkey breasts to a carving board, cover loosely with aluminum foil and let rest for 5 to 10 minutes. Remove the twine and cut the turkey into 1/2-inch slices. Serve immediately with turkey gravy.

One breast could serve 4-6 I’m betting, two would serve 8-10.

Notes:

Again with the stuffing, if you enjoy the stuff, consider having extra to bake in a casserole dish – you can do this at the same time as the bird is baking. Place the extra stuffing in the oven after you turn the temp down to 350°F and bake for the remaining 40 minutes.

We did end up baking the turkey a little longer, until the meat thermometer read the right temp, but only about another ten or fifteen minutes.

There was also the fact that I just could not get the meat pounded thin enough anyway! Wow what a lot of energy it took getting it what thinness we could lol. Yes, the stuffing was easier and turned out good, too! Hope you like it if you give it a try.

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Recipes used here do not belong to Full Fork Ahead. Please check each post for the source. We review recipes, photograph our efforts and comment on our experiences with the recipes only. Please contact us if you have any questions.

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Disclosure

Recipes used here do not belong to Full Fork Ahead. Please check each post for the source. We review recipes, photograph our efforts and comment on our experiences with the recipes only. Please contact us if you have any questions.